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HISTORICAL SKETCH^ ' 



RELATING TO THE 



ORIGINAL BOUNDARIES AND EARLY TIMES 



OF 



FRANKLIN COUNTY; 



PREPARED FOR THE 



J'ranMin ^ountg :|)tonter Jaaoriation, 



AND DELIVERED BY 



JOSEPH SULLIVANT, Escu, 



SATURDAY, JUNE 3d, 1871. 






COLUMBUS: 

OHIO STATE JOURNAL PRINT. 
1871. 



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.A-IDIDK^EJSS. 



One of the main objects of our Asso-. 
ciation is to gather up and preserve the 
incidents of our early settlement, and 
collect authentic materials for the future 
historian of this county. 

As my contribution to so desirable an 
end, I now propose to give a sketch of 
the original boundaries of the county, 
and show the political divisions to 
which it has, from time to time, been at- 
tached, and trace it down to its present 
dimensions. 

In doing so, I must necessarily adopt 
a chronological order, and even then 
touch but lightly, for were I to attempt 
the briefest account of all the events 
that led to the settlement of the county, 
or to give the most meagre detail of the 
many interesting facts connected with 
its history and progress, it would re- 
quire a volume rather than the paper I 
have prepared for the occasion which 
brings us together this day; a day in 
which we propose to revive the memories 
of the past, to renew and strengthen the 
bonds of neighborly fellowship, and, if 
possible, give our children some idea of 
the early times, and how hardly the 
Pionoers won this country, which the 
present generation are so peacefully en- 
joying. 

A little less than one hundred years 
ago, ail this great western country, 
now divided Into many populous and 
flourishing States, was but a howliDg 
wilderness, almost unknown and untra- 
versed by civilized man. 

The original thirteen States, the "E 
Pluribus Unum," were colonial depend- 
encies of the crown of Great Britain, 
which, long before, had granted char- 
ters and established colonies in the new 
world, among the most important of 
which was Virginia. 

With a liberality equal to the igno- 
rance of the geography of the country, 
the western limits of this colony were 
extended to the Southern Sea ! Under 
this broad title, Virginia claimed and 
subsequently exercised a sort of jurisdic- 
tion over a vast territory comprising 
what now constitutes the States of Ohio, 
Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin 
and Minnesota. France also claimed 
large portions of the country by the 
right of discovery and settlement, and 
disputed the title of Great Britain and 
contended with her for supremacy on 
the North American continent; and by 
establishing her line of military posts, 
stretching from the Gulf of St. Lawrence 
west to the Mississippi, along our north- 
ern borders, she hemmed in and retarded 
the English settlements, and greatly 
harassed them by aid of the Indians, 
who were generally the allies of France 
in the long and bloody wars that en- 
sued. 

The French post at the forks of the 
Ohio, known as Fort DuQuesne, domi- 
nated Western Pennsylvania and West- 
ern Virginia, and was the key to the 
country south of Lake Erie; and we can- 
not wonder at the long struggle between 
the English and French for the posses- 
sion of this important position. 



In an attempt to take this post the 
English General Braddock suffered a 
most disastrous defeat, and our own 
Washington distinguished himself by 
his gallantry and good conduct on this 
sad occasion. The French abandoned 
this post in the winter of 1758-9, and 
soon afterward the Fnglish took posses- 
sion of the ruins, and near by erected 
Fort Pitt, named after the great Eng- 
lish Minister, and under the shadow and 
protection of Fort Pitt arose the village, 
now the city of Pittsburgh, and immN 
gration and settlements began to grow 
rapidly in Western Pennsylvania and 
Virginia, notwithstanding the continued 
hostility of the Indians. 

There are reasons for believing that 
even before 1750 there were white men 
who passed through this region. Chris- 
topher Gist, an agent of an English and 
Virginia land company, certainly trav- 
eled through this central region in 1750, 
and I have reasons for thinking that he 
passed over or very near the present site 
of Columbus. 

Probably the first educated white 
persons who came to the State with a 
view of permanent residence, were those 
conscientious and self-denying men who, 
impelled by a noble philanthropy, left 
behind them the security and comforts 
of civilized life and ventured into an un- 
broken wilderness, and among an un- 
known and savage people, with the hope 
of rescuing them from barbarism and 
turning them toward Christianity. 

With this object, and under the pa- 
tronage of the Moravian church, of 
which he was a minister, David Zeis- 
berger and others penetrated into 
the present State of Ohio and located 
themselves on the Tuscarawas branch 
of the Muskingum, and, on May 3, 1772, 
established their mission of Schonbrun, 
and soon afterward, those of Guaden- 
hutten, Salem and Lichtnau, in the pres- 
ent county of Tuscarawas. 

Of the success of these Christian men, 
of their discouragements and privations, 
or of the sad and tragical fate that 
finally overtook them and their Indian 
converts, I shall not attempt any ac- 
count. 

Save these Moravian brethren, there 
were no white men in the State of Ohio, 
unless a few transient traders among the 
Indians; but that there was a popula- 
tion around the old French posts of 
Detroit, Vincennes, Kaskaskia, and other 
places, requiring the forms and pro- 
tection of law, is evident from the fact 
that the House of Burgesses, of Virginia 
(corresponding to our House of Repre- 
sentatives), in 1769 established the coun- 
ty of Bottetourt, making the Blue Ridge 
its eastern and the Mississippi river its 
western boundary, including Western 
Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michi- 
gan, Wisconsin and Minnesota — a pret- 
ty ample territory, it must be admitted, 
for one county, — and rather inconven^ 
ient we would think in these days, for 
the people to travel over 700 miles to 
their county seat, which was fixed at 
Fincastle, in the valley of Virginia. 



T.jff* 



Bat the authorities very wisely took 
into consideration these inconveniences, 
for the act establishing the county — 
which was named after one of the G >v- 
ernors of the colony of Virginia — recites, 
•'And whereas, the people situated on the 
Mississippi, In the said county of Bot- 
tetourt, will be very remote from the 
Court House and must necessarily be- 
come a separate county as soon as their 
numbers are sufficient — which probably 
will happen in a short time. Be it there- 
fore enacted by the authority aforesaid 
(House of Burgesses) that the inhabit- 
ants of that part of the said coun'y of 
Bottetourt which lies on the said wa- 
ters, shall be exempted from the pay- 
ment of any levies to be laid by the said 
county court, for the purpose of build- 
ing a court house and prison for said 
county." 

During the long contest between the 
French and English for the possession 
of the great western territory, the In- 
dians were the allies of France, 
and the western frontiers and 
border settlements of Pennsylvania and 
Virginia were constantly harassed and 
retarded by marauding parties of the 
savages, who marked their invasions 
with fire and blood. 

These incursions were continued after 
the fall of the French power, and the 
murders were so frequent and the inse- 
curity of life so great that the colony of 
Virginia determined to strike a vigorous 
blow and secure the peace and quiet of 
their own settlements by carrying the 
war into the heart of the Indian coun- 
try, which was the present State of 
Ohio. 

Accordingly an army of three thousand 
men was raised and equipt to operate 
against the Indian towns on the Scioto. 

The whole was under the command of 
Lord Dunmore, the Governor — but the 
army marched in two divisions, with 
the intention of forming a junction be- 
fore reaching the Indian towns. The In- 
dians, with great sagacity, determined 
to attack, and, if possible, defeat these 
divisions separately. One division of 
the Virginia army, under the command 
of Col. Lewis, marched down the val 
ley of the Kanawha towards the Ohio 
river. 

The Indians, in pursuance of their 
plan, went to meet these troops and give 
them battle before they crossed the Ohio 
and penetrated further into their coun- 
try. 

The troops having arrived at Point 
Pleasant, (situated at the junction of the 
Great Kanawha and the Ohio,) were, 
with great fury, attacked by the com- 
bined forces of Indians, about sunrise on 
the morning of October 10th, 1774; the 
battle raged all day until night put an 
end to the conflict. 

Victory declared for the disciplined 
forces of the white men — a victory gain- 
ed at a great loss of men, and particular- 
ly of the officers of Lewis' army — and 
the result was equally bloody and dis- 
astrous to the Indians, who withdrew 
in sullen disappointment from the battle- 
field and retreated to their own country. 

On the part of the Indians the battle 



of Point Pleasant was undoubtedly the 
best planned and most systematically 
and hardly contested in the annals of 
Indian wai fare. 

Colonel Lewis continuen his march, 
and on the 24th of October arrived at 
the Pickaway plains and encamped on 
Congo creek. 

In the meanwhile the other division of 
the army, under Dunmore, arrived at 
the Ohio river below Wheeling, and 
building boats, descended the river to 
the mouth of the big Hockhocking, 
where they built Fort Gower; and from 
thence marched up the river, through 
the hilly and broken region of Athens, 
Hocking and Fairfield counties, into the 
present county of Pickaway, and estab- 
lished Camp Charlotte, on Si ppo creek, 
not far from the Shawnee towns on the 
Scioto, at or near the present site of 
Westfall. 

The two armies under Lewis and 
Dunmore here joined, presenting a force 
too great for the Indians to contend 
against with any hope of success. Ac- 
cordingly negotiations were entered up- 
on which soon resulted in a treaty of 
peace. 

It was on this occasion that the cele- 
brated speech of the Indian Chief Logan 
was said to have been sent in and which 
was soon afterward published in Thom- 
as Jefferson's "Notes on Virginia." 

In relation to the battle ol the Point 
and the subsequent treaty, I had a most 
interesting and graphic account from 
the lips of Simon Kenton, who used to 
be a visitor at my father's house, in my 
boyhood. 

On one of these visits, being fresh 
from the reading of Jefferson's Notes, 
and knowing that Kenton had taken 
part in the battle, and was present at 
the treaty, I asked him about them. He 
gave an interesting account of the fight, 
remarking that the Indians fought more 
like devils than men. 

At the treaty, not being fully assured 
of the pacific intentions of the Indians, 
and apprehendiug there might be treach- 
ery, the officers were upon the alert and 
the troops stood to tbeir arms, ready at 
any moment to resist a sudden attack. 
He said the approach of the Indians to 
the treaty ground was the most impos- 
ing sight he ever saw; over five hundred 
mounted warriors came riding over the 
prairie in single file — he said it was a 
long string, and he thought they would 
never get done coming. They were in 
full paint — one half the face red, the 
other black. I asked what this signified. 
He said it meant they were equally for 
peace or war — they were indifferent 
which — but this was a piece of bravado, 
and happily peace prevailed. 

As to Logan's speech, Kent:>n said 
Logan was not present. He was not then 
even supposed to be on the waters of the 
Scioto, but somewhere in the neighbor- 
hood of Wheeling; and as to the speech, 
there was none of his at the treaty, and 
he never heard of it until months after- 
wards. 

But I call your attention to this an- 
cient army on the Pickaway plains, for 
the reason that Kenton said Dunmore, 



tt^tft 



while there, dispatched a company of 
men to destroy the Mingo town and en- 
campments at the forks of the Scioto. 
Another account says this force was 
under the command of Captain Craw- 
ford, and dispatched early in November 
to destroy the Mingo towns up the 
Scioto. 

I have seen, within a few years, a 
newspaper extract from the diary of a 
Virginian officer, present with Dun- 
more's army, stating the same fact of a 
force sent up the Scioto to destroy the 
Mingo towns at the forks of said river. 

The Mingoes, sympathizing with Lo- 
gan, and perhaps participating in his 
enmity, were not represented at the 
treaty on the Pickaway plains, and I 
suppose it was for this reason an expedi- 
tion was seut against them. 

Now the significant fact is, that the 
forks of the Scioto was the junction of 
the Whetstone with that river, and was 
so known and marked on the 
maps of the early surveyors. 

There were three Indian encampments 
or villages in this vicinity; one on the 
high bank near the old Morrill house, one 
and a half miles below the city, from 
which the party was sent out to 
capture my father and his party, on 
Deer Creek, in 1795; one at the west 
end of the Harrisburgh bridge, and the 
principal one on the river below the 
mouth of the Whetstone, near the Peni- 
tentiary, where formerly stood Brickie's 
cabin and now stands Hall & Brown's 
warehouse. 

The location of these villages I had 
from John Brickie, Jeremiah Armstrong 
and Jonathan Alder, who had been cap- 
tives among the Indians. 

Alder was a visitor, in my boyhood, 
at my father's house and afterwards at 
mine, and I had many of the incidents of 
his life as related by himself, which after- 
wards, at my suggestion, were written 
out. 

In his boyhood Alder had been cap- 
tured in Virginia by a marauding party 
of Indians, was brought into Ohio and 
adopted into a tribe, and when grown 
up married and lived among them. 
He lived on Big Darby, died there and 
was well known to our earlier settlers, 
and is, no doubt, remembered by many 
here to-day. 

In one of the personal narratives to 
which I have alluded, he told me he had 
heard from the older men of this tribe 
that, in the fall of 1774, when all the 
male Indians of the upper village, except 
a few old men, had gone on their first fall 
hunt, one day about noon, the village 
was surprised by the sudden appear- 
ance of a body of armed white 
men, who immediately commenced 
firing upon all they could see. Great 
consternation and panic ensued, and the 
inhabitants fled in every direction One 
Indian woman seized her child, of five 
or six years of age, and rushed down the 
bank of the river and across to the 
wooded island opposite, when she was 
shot down at the farther bank. The 
child was unhurt amid the shower of 
balls and escaped into the thicket and 
hid in a large hollow sycamore standing 



near the middle of the island, where the 
child* was found alive two days after- 
ward, when the warriors of the tribe re- 
turned, having been summoned back to 
the scene of disaster by runners sent for 
the purpose. This wooded and shady 
island was a favorite place for us boys 
when we went swimming and fishing, 
especially when we were lucky enough to 
hook Johnny Brickie's canoe; and I have 
no doubt the huge sycamore is well re~ 
membered by many besides myself. 

This interesting incident connects our 
county directly with the old colonial 
times. 

The next year after Dunmore's expe- 
dition to the Pickaway plains, the thir- 
teen colonies revolted from the governs 
ment of Great Britain. 

The Declaration of Independence and 
the war of the revolution followed soon 
after, and, although the Indian depreda- 
tions continued against western Vir- 
ginia andPennsylvania and other frontier 
settlements, it was impossible for the 
government to give much attention or 
protection to the western country. 

Immigration from 1775 to 1785, was 
mostly confined to Kentucky and Ten- 
nessee, and their population continued 
to increase notwithstanding the war, 
and of course, much more rapidly after 
peace with Great Britain. 

In 1778 the Virginia House of Bur- 
gesses decreed that the citizens of Vir- * 
ginia who are already settled, or may 
hereafter settle, on the western side of 
the Ohio, shall be included in a distinct 
county, which shall be called Illinois 
county. 

I believe the county seat was fixed at 
Kaskaskia, Illinois. Ohio formed but a 
small part of this great county. There 
were, as yet, no white inhabitants in 
the State, except the Moravians already 
mentioned, and a few traders among the 
Indians. 

In order to cement and strengthen the 
then feeble confederation of the States, 
Virginia generously ceded to the general 
government on March 1, 1784, all her 
rights and claims northwest of the Ohio, 
reserving only a certain body of land to 
satisfy and reward her own brave and 
patriotic citizens who had fought in the 
war for independence. 

This body of land was bounded on the 
south by the Ohio river, on the east by 
the Scioto, on the west by the Little 
Miami, and on the north by a line uniting 
the head waters of these two streams. 

The officers and soldiers of Virginia 
were empowered to appoint a surveyor 
general and open a land office, and they 
accordingly selected Colonel Richard C. 
Anderson, an officer of the revolution, 
who proceeded to the falls of the Ohio 
and opened his office on the present site 
of Louisville, Kentucky. 

The lands in the Virginia Military 
District of Ohio, were thrown open for 
entry in 1787, to satisfy the claims of 
the officers aDd soldiers, and soon after- 
ward the hardy and adventurous deputy 
surveyors, of whom my father, Lucas 
Sullivant, was one, entered upon their 



perilous work betwixt the Scioto and 
Miami. 

This munificent and magnanimous 
gift of Virginia of an immense body of 
lands, equal in advantages and fertility 
to any on the globe, and of a territory 
sufficient for an empire, was accepted 
by the United States government in 1787, 
and by the famous ordinances of that 
year, all of the territory northwest of 
the Ohio was forever secured and con- 
secrated to freedom. la all this vast 
region slavery and involuntary servi- 
tude, except for crime, was forever pro- 
hibited. The wisdom of this act, secur- 
ing so grf at an area for the full exercise 
and development of all the powers and 
faculties of the white man, when de- 
pendent on his own exertions, is well ex- 
emplified in the fact that Ohio, Indiana 
and Illinois, in the race of progress and 
production of wealth, have outstripped 
the generons mother who gave them 
birth. 

Having accepted this great grant from 
Virginia, the Congress of the United 
Statestook steps to organize civil govern- 
ment within it and established the North 
Western Territory, and General Arthur 
St. Clair, a distinguished officer of the 
revolution, was appointed Governor 
thereof, in October, 1187. 

Many of the officers and sol- 
diers of the war for independence, 
after so many years of ar- 
duous service, found themselves at 
its close in an impoverished condition, 
and turned their attention to the west as 
a field offering the best opportunity for re- 
trieving their broken fortunes on the new 
and fertile lands there being offered for 
settlement. But as these lands could be 
had from the Government only in large 
bodies, various companies were formed 
for this purpose. Among others, the 
Ohio Land Company obtained, by pur- 
chase, a grant of a million of acres upon 
the Ohio and Muskingum, and in 1787 a 
colony left Massachusetts to settle on 
these lands 

Tnis company was under the direction 
of General Rufus Putnam, and as they 
reached the Ohio river at so late a peri- 
od it was not deemed prudent to proceed 
further; they encamped for the winter, 
and having built boats they next spring 
descended the river, and, on April 13th, 
1788, landed near Fort Harmar, which 
had been erected a short time befsre. 
They proceeded to erect block houses 
and stockades and laid out the town of 
Marietta. 

John Cleves Symmes and others, of 
New Jersey, also obtained by ourchase 
a large body of land on the Ohio, be- 
tween the Big and Little Miami, and in 
the fall of 1788 settlements also 
commenced on his purchase at Cincin- 
nati, Columbia and Symmes, or North 
Bend; but the small military detach- 
ment which had been sent out for the 
protection of the infant settlements on 
the Miami, having soon afterward estab- 
lished their headquarters at Fort Wash- 
ington, Cincinnati grew up around it 
and soon took the lead of all the settle- 
ments in that region. 

Gov. St. Clair arrived at Marietta and 



by proclamation of July 27, 1788, erected 
the county of Washington, and fixed 
the county seat at Marietta, and defined 
the boundaries of this first county, 
as follows: South by the Ohio river, east 
by Pennsylvania and Virginia, north by 
Lake Erie, west commencing at the 
mouth of the Cuyahoga river, thence up 
the stream, over the portage, to the Tus- 
carawas, and down It to Fort Laurens, 
(near the present town of Bolivar, Tus- 
carawas county,) thence west to portage 
of Miami, thence to the head of the 
Scioto, and down that stream to its 
mouth, to include the whole eastern 
half of the State, and eastern half of 
Franklin county 

January, 2, 171)0, Gov. St. Clair pro- 
claimed Hamilton county, with county 
seat at Cincinnati. 

This county, the second one erected 
within the limits of Ohio, was bounded 
south by the Ohio river, east by the 
Little Miami, on the west by the Big 
Miami, aud on the north by a line due 
east from the Standing-stone Fork of 
said river to the Little Miami. 

About the same time, the country 
west of Hamilton county was divided 
and made into the county of St Clair, 
with Kaskaskia, Illinois, for Its county 
seat; and the county of Knox, with Its 
seat of justice at Vincennes, Indiana. 
These counties, with a part of Wayne, 
subsequently formed the Territory of 
Indiana. 

The eight years succeeding the settle- 
ment at Marietta and In the Miami 
Valley, were signalized by great ac- 
tivity and hostility of the Indians 
against the settlers in the Ter- 
ritory, and also in Kentucky, and 
although the settlers had erected 
block-houses and stockades for safety, 
and protection, there were always In- 
dians lurking about to pick off strag- 
glers or the unwary, and many whites 
were killed or captured, and formal and 
frequent attacks were make upon the 
stations and sieges undertaken by large 
and formidable bodies of savages. The 
insecurity of life was so great, and the 
difficulties and obstacles to settlement 
so many, and the aid and protection 
from the Government so little and so 
tardy, that there was great danger of 
the total withdrawal of the white set- 
tlers and abandonment of the whole ter- 
ritory. 

I cannot better illustrate the condi- 
tion of the country, at this time, than by 
quoting from Judge Burnet's Notes on 
the New Terrieory. 

When speaking of the great activity 
and incessant attacks of the Indians, he 
says : "These frequent predatory move- 
ments of the savages, following in such, 
rapid succession, produced universal 
alarm throughout the country; and the 
settlers began to think they would be 
compelled to abandon it. They had 
given up all the conveniencies and com- 
forts of civilized life, to which they had 
been accustomed, which, in their opin- 
ion, was an ample consideration for any 
and every advantage, anticipated from 
their change of location. But when, in 
addition to this, life was in perpetual 



5 



danger, there could be no motive induc- 
ing them to continue in such a state of 
imminent exposure. Men of influence 
and reflection, in every part of the fron- 
tier country, saw and felt that vigorous 
and immediate measures were necessary 
to save the American settlements from 
being deserted by their inhabitants, or 
broken up and laid waste by the sav- 
ages. 

"It would be a tedious undertaking, 
if it were practicable, to enumerate or 
detail the hostile movements of the In- 
dians and their numberless depredations. 
During all this time small parties were 
constantly lurking in the neighborhood 
of the white settlements and stations, 
watching for opportunities to plunder 
and murder. They came frequently into 
the villages by night and carried off 
horses and other property undiscovered. 
The depredations were so frequent that 
the inhabitants were constantly on the 
alert, and found it necessary to keep up 
a guard, when clearing and cultivating 
their grounds. It was not safe to venture 
into the woods unarmed, and even at 
Cincinnati, in sight of Fort Washington, 
it was found prudent to attend church 
on the Saboath, armed and prepared to 
repel an attack." And all this was true 
of Marietta, Manchester and other settle- 
ments. 

Under these circumstances several ex- 
peditions were fitted out to operate 
against the Indians on the Scioto, 
Miami and Wabash, with varying suc- 
cess, but the murders and attacks of the 
Indians continuing and the settlers 
clamoring for the protection so strangely 
neglected by the Government, it was at 
length determined to send out a force 
under General Wsyne against the Indi- 
ans, and he left Fort Washington, in 
Hamilton county, in the latter part of 
September, 1790, with about 1500 men, 
mostly militia from Pennsylvania and 
Kentucky, with a few regulars, or dis- 
ciplined soldiers. 

Harmar's campaign was an unsuc- 
cessful and unsatisfactory one, and he 
returned to Fort Washington with his 
army broken and demoralized. 

In 1791, two expeditions, one under 
Scott, of Kentucky, the other under 
command of Colonel Wilkinson, were 
sent against the Eel River and Wabash 
Indians, and destroyed their villages 
and growing crops. The Government, 
in the meanwhile, had determined to 
strike an effectual blow and secure peace 
and safety for the harassed settlers, and 
for this purpose an army of 3000 men 
was organized and placed under the 
command of Governor St. Clair. On 
the 17th of September, the troops, to 
the number of 3300, left Ludlow's Sta- 
tion for the Indian towns, proceeding 
slowly and building forts on the way. 
Having early in November reached the 
vicinity of the Indians, he was attacked 
early on the morning of November 4th; 
a desperate battle ensued, but St Clair's 
forces were compelled to retreat, having 
suffered a loss of more than half of the 
officers and 875 men. 

This disastrous defeat cast a terrible 
gloom over the feeble and struggling 
settlements. 



The expeditions against the Indians 
and the destruction of their towns and 
provisions, greatly exasperated them, 
and the unfortunate issue of the cam- 
paigns under Harmar and St. Clair 
greatly emboldened them, and they were 
more troublesome than ever. 

The Government, now thoroughly 
aroused to the exigencies of the occa- 
sion, empowered Gen. Anthony Wayne 
to raise an army, which he was to com- 
mand and which should be adequate to 
the occasion. 

It would be Interesting to follow 
in detail the operations of this brave 
officer, but our time forbids, and we 
must content ourselves by saying they 
were crowned with success, and pro- 
ductive of the most important re- 
sults, and we can only give a very brief 
outline. 

General Wayne was appointed to the 
chief command, and he proceeded to 
Pittsburg in the summer of 1792, and 
spent the time until the next spring in 
drilling and disciplining his troops; in 
April they descended the Ohio to Fort 
Washington, and employed the time in 
collecting supplies and making roads. 

He marched in October; in Decem- 
ber erected Fort Greenville, (now Green- 
ville, in Darke county,) and went into 
winter quarters; and a detachment of 
his army built Fort Recovery and garri<- 
soned it, on St. Clair's battle ground. 

In the meanwhile, negotiations were 
opened with the Indians to secure peace 
and establish boundaries. This con- 
sumed several months. 

He continued his preparations and 
maintained a defensive and offensive po- 
sition in the Indian country, and on 
June 30th was attacked by a large In- 
dian force, under Little Turtle, chief of 
the Miamis; they fought all day and part 
of the next, when the Indians were de- 
feated. 

Reinforced in July with several hun- 
dred mounted Kentucky troops, under 
the command of General Scott, he moved 
on the 28th with about 3000 men, and on 
the 8th of August, 1794, he arrived at the 
Auglaize and Maumee, in the Indian 
country, where he built Fort Defiance, 
and soon afterwards moved on near to 
the rapids of Maumee, where was fought 
the decisive battle of the Fallen Timbers, 
breaking forever the Indian power in 
the Northwest. 

Negotiations and a treaty of peace fol- 
lowed, and the celebrated Greenville 
treaty truce was agreed upon at Gen. 
Wayne's headquarters at Greenville, 
now in Darke county. And August 3d, 
1795, the Wyandots, Potawatomies, Mi- 
amis, Delawares and Shawnees, of 
Ohio, and other Northwestern tribes, 
agreed to deliver up all captives and to 
bury the hatchet and keep peace forever. 

The time intervening from the settle- 
ment at Marietta had been a state of 
war greatly retarding and embarrassing 
the settlement of the country, but now 
peace being secured, immigration began 
to increase steadily, and September,1796, 
Wayne county, which was the fifth, was 
established, including the northern half 
of our present State, Northern Indiana, 



e 



and all of Michigan, with the county 
seat at Detroit. 

In 1796-8 the territory was rapidly flill- 
ing with Immigrants, and new settle- 
ments were begun in many places. And 
in 1797-8 settlements were made at 
Franklinton, on Alum creek, and on 
Darby, in this county. 

Adams county was proclaimed July 
10th, 1797, with the county seat at Man- 
chester, a village on the Ohio, establish- 
ed by Nathaniel Massie in 1790. This 
county extended across the entire State, 
from the Ohio to the Indian boundary 
line on the north, and including our 
territory, we, of course, fell under the 
jurisdiction of Adams county. 

Each year the settlers pushed further 
into the wilderness, aud August 20th, 

1798, Ross county was proclaimed, with 
the seat of justice at Chillicothe, which 
had been laid out in the summer of 1790, 
and we now fell within the territory 
constituting Ross county (named after 
James Ross of Pittsburg.) 

It having been ascertained in 1798 that 
the territory contained five thousand 
white male inhabitants, and was there- 
fore entitled to enter upon the second 
grade of territorial government, accord- 
ing to the ordinance of 1787, tne Govern- 
or, St. Clair, issued his proclamation 
calling upon the people to elect Repre- 
sentatives to a General Assembly. This 
was done, and the members elect met in 
convention at Cincinnati, February 4th, 

1799, and nominated ten persons for a 
Legislative Council, of whom five were 
to be appointed by the President of the 
United States. This appointment was 
made and both branches of this first Leg- 
islature, met at Cincinnati, September 
16th, 1799; and having organized, pro- 
ceeded to the transaction of much im- 
portant business and the enactment of 
laws made necessary by the change from 
a dependent condition upon the will of 
the Governor and his Judges, to one of 
greater freedom and independence. 

At this session the Legislature elected 
General William Henry Harrison a dele- 
gate to represent the territory in Con- 
gress. This was in October, and Imme- 
diately thereafter he proceeded to Phila- 
delphia, where Congress was sitting, and 
entered upon his duties. He retained 
this place but a short time, for during 
this session Congress erected the territo- 
ry of Indiana, of which Harrison was 
made the Governor. 

The question of forming a state gov- 
ernment was agitated in 1802, and was 
favored by the people, and petitions were 
prepared and forwarded to Congress, 
asking for permission, which was 
granted April 30, 1802; and in the fall 
delegates were elected to a convention 
and empowered to form a constitution. 
They met In Chillicothe on the first 
Monday of November, and after a short 
Bession formed a constitution satisfac- 
tory, at least, to themselves; for it la a 
remarkable fact that this Instrument 
was never submitted to or adopted by 
any vote of the people. It was acqui- 
esced in, however, and the State grew 
and flourished for nearly fifty years un- 
der it. 



The Legislature, elected under the 
constitution, met in Chillicothe, March 
1, 1803, and Ohio took her place in the 
Union with Edward Tifiiu as Governor; 
and thus ended our territorial connec- 
tion. 

Franklin county was organized April 
30, 1803, at the first session of the State 
Legislature, with boundaries: Begin- 
ning on the western bouudary of the 
20tti range of townships east of the 
Scioto river, at the corner of sections 
24 and 25, in the 9th township of the 
21st range, surveyed by John Mathews; 
thence west until it intersects the east- 
ern boundary line of Greene county; 
thence north with said line until it inter- 
sects the State line; thence easterly with 
said line to the northwest corner of 
Fairfield; thence with the western bound- 
ary of Fairfield to the place of begin- 
ning; including a part of the present 
Pickaway, Madison, Clarke, Chamraign, 
Union, Lotran, Delaware and Marion 
counties. But the original boundaries 
of this county will be better understood 
by the aid of the large diagram map I 
have prepared for this occasion. ^ 

In the early years the Indian troubles 
greatly retarded the settlement of the 
Northwest territory, but besides this va- 
rious other causes were in operation, 
chief among which was the vicious 
method adopted for the sale and dispo- 
sition of the lands acquired by the mu- 
nificent grant of Virginia, by which the 
general government obtained title to all 
the Northwest territory. 

All east of the Scioto and between the 
Big aad Little Miamis the lands were 
open to purchase only in immense bod- 
ies, of which only compmies of wealth 
could avail themselves, and in this way 
Cutler and others in Massachusetts 
formed the Ohio Land Company, and 
obtained by purchase a million of acres 
on the Ohio and Muskingum, which 
were first settled by the colony under 
the. lead of Putnam. 

So also John Cleves Symmes and oth- 
ers obtained In the same way a largs 
grant betwixt the Big and LittleMiamis. 

In the Virginia Military District, 
which included the western half of our 
county, the land had been surveyed into 
large tracts and was In the hands of 
large land holders and non-residents, 
which for a long time prevented rapid 
settlement of the county on the west side 
of the Scioto; a difficulty from which 
that district has not recovered in 
seventy years, for it is not yet 
equal In development to the eastern 
half of the county, where the lands 
were subdivided and sold in smaller 
tracts. 

Previous to 1800 It was impossible for 
men of moderate means to buy a home 
in the territory, for the smallest body of 
land offered for sale by the government 
was one section, or six hundred and 
forty acres; but in this year a half sec- 
tion, or three hundred and twenty acres, 
could be purchased, and at the land offi- 
ces in Cincinnati, Marietta, Steubenville 
and other places the lands were rapidly 
bought up; and subsequently, when a 
quarter section, one hundred and eighty 



*A large map was exhibited. 



I 



acres, could be had for two dollars an 
acre on five years credit, the county be- 
gan to settle with great rapidity, for it 
enabled men to become freeholders and 
cultivators of their own lands, who had 
hitherto been leaseholders and tenants, 
working for the benefit of others. 

At first our roads were mere traces 
through the woods, and long afterward 
were of the poorest description, without 
bridges, and notwithstanding the cordu- 
roys, were almost impassable during 
winter, and I remember that wagons 
were stalled by the mud betwixt Frank- 
linton and Columbus, and that they re- 
mained until they were dried out by the 
spring sun and winds. 

bait, nails, iron, hard and hollow ware 
were brought from Pittsburg on pack- 
horses, and as late as 1828, the chief 
mode of transporting our goods or our 
products was by the great Conestoga 
wagons, with their four and six horse 
bell teams. 

There was scarcely any demand or 
market for our produce, which had to be 
floated off down the river by means of 
Orleans boats, as they were called, after 
the place where they went for a market. 

There was but little use for corn, even 
to feed cattle and hogs, for the cattle 
found subsistence in the abundant range, 
and hogs lived all winter in the woods 
and fattened on the mast of hickory 
nuts, acorns and beechnuts, and in 1825, 
1000 bushels of corn would have over- 
stocked and glutted the market o. Co- 
lumbus, where no purchaser could be 
found to pay cash for such an immense 
quantity. 

At an earlier period there were few or 
no mills, and the early settlers had to go 
to Dyer's mill on Little Darby — bells' 
at Dublin, or down to Kinnikinick in 
Ross county, and therefore handmills, 
graters and hominy mortars were 
brought into frequent requisition to fur- 
nish the material for bread. 

Salt was scarce and high — $3 to $5 
per bushel — as it was brought from 
Pittsburg and Wheeling on pack horses 
Iron was also scarce and high, and the 
nails used in the first buildings in 
Franklinton were hammered out by 
hand. 

There were few or no American cot- 
tons, and English Manchester long- 
cloths, and India muslins and Calicuts, 
and printed goods supplied our stores, 
and it took a good two horse load of 
corn to buy five yards of India calico, 
which was considered a full dress pat- 
tern, or enough of fine linen to make a 
shirt. But fortunately a broad-cloth 
coat or a silk or satin dress was consid- 
ered both fashionable and genteel after 
ten years' wear 

Blankets and coarse woolens were also 
dear, and after the first stock of clothing 
was exhausted the settlers fell back upon 
the coarse flax linen, spun and woven 
by the industrious pioneer mothers, who, 
when wool was afterwards to be had, 
made blankets and coverlets and the lin- 
sey woolsey for themselves and family. 
As for th'e men, buckskin hunting shirt 
and breeches were not uncommon, and 
were warm and comfortable, except 
when they were wet. 



There are persons here to-day who can 
remember when there was not a sheep in 
Franklin county. 

Even early in the territorial times 
there were enactments for encouraging 
the introduction of sheep, by a bounty 
laid upon the scalps of wolves and pan- 
thers. These laws were adopted and 
amended by the State Legislature, and I 
suppose that, in the first fifty years from 
the settlement of the State, several 
thousand dollars were paid for those 
killed within the borders of Franklin 
county. 

The surface of the county, with a few 
exceptions, was covered by heavy for- 
ests, requiring prodigious labor to open 
and cultivate a farm; but notwithstand- 
ing the necessity for constant physical 
labor and great attention to material 
things, the early settlers were not un- 
mindful of their mental and moral im- 
provement, and to supply their wants in 
these particulars, schools, churches and 
newspapers were established. 

In February, 18Q6, the First Presby,- 
terian Church, and, I believe, the first 
church of any kind in the county, was 
organized in Franklinton, with James 
Hoge as pastor. Of this church my 
mother was a member, and Robert Cul- 
bertson and William Read elders. Lucas 
Sullivant, William Domigan, John 
Dill, Joseph Hunter and Joseph 
Dickson were trustees. Of members, 
Elders, Trustees and Pastor, none are 
now living. Of the early members of 
this congregation, the Reads, Nelsons, 
Shaws, Mooberys, Taylors, Longs, Liv- 
ingstons, Pughs, and others, east of the 
Scioto, traveled on horseback along the 
bridle paths, over the present site of Co- 
lumbus, to reach ^the old church in 
Franklinton. 

The first regularly incorporated church 
was that of St. John's, in Worthington, 
and our Methodist brethren were not 
backward in the good work, for they 
established preaching stations at an 
early day. 

Of newspapers, the first in the county 
was established by Joel Buttles, in 1811, 
at the town of Worthington ; and this 
paper, the Western Intelligencer, is the 
progenitor, by lineal ascent, of the present 
Ohio State Journal. The other was the 
Freeman's Chronicle, edited and pub- 
lished by James B Gardiner, in Frank- 
linton. June, 1812. Of these early news- 
papers, I have here specimen copies. 

At the organization of the State, no 
place was fixed as the seat of govern- 
ment, and for several years the Legisla- 
ture met in different towns; but early in 
the year 1812, after a hard contest with 
other localities, it was determined that 
the seat of government should be fixed 
at the high bank of the Scioto river, 
opposite the town of Franklinton. 

This result was accomplished by the 
good management, within -ithe Legisla- 
ture, of our able Senator, Gen. Joseph 
Foos, assisted outside by a strong lobby 
of the friends of Starling, Kerr, Mc- 
Laughlin and Johnson, the proprietors; 
but, above all, by the liberal donations 
of Lucas Sullivant, and his guarantee 
of other subscriptions, to a large 



amount, and which he afterward had to 
pay. 

The State House having been com- 
pleted, the legislators met in Colnmbus 
for the first time in the winter of 1816. 

Upon the same day in June, 1812, on 
which the town lots ®f Columbus were 
offered for sale, war was declared against 
Great Britain. 

The Ohio troops were placed under the 
command of General Hull, marched to 
Detroit and soon afterward surrendered 
to the British. This unlooked for re* 
suit spread a gloom over the whole State, 
and indeed over the whole country. A 
season of great distress and alarm fol- 
lowed; for our county was now open to 
an irruption of the bloody savages. 

The citizens of Franklinton and of the 
county responded promptly, and more 
than once marched to the northern 
border, and at a time when their services 
were most needed to attend to the grow- 
ing crops. The county troops were 
several times marched to Sandusky and 
assisted in repelling attacks and raising 
the siege of Fort Meigs. The Franklin 
County Dragoons, under the command 
of the gallant Captain Joseph Vance, 
distinguished themselves. 

For the first year and a half the war 
was carried on in a very feeble and vacil- 
lating manner, and the people of this 
county were harassed and interfered 
with in all their operations, by the fre- 
quent and unnecessary calls for troops 
upon very trivial occasions. The war 
deranged the business of the country, 
which was still more embarrassed by tne 
great issue of paper money by the banks 
of the State, and this currency soon be- 
came depreciated, and finally much of it 
utterly worthless. 

Much of the land east of the Scioto 
had been bought on credit. These pay- 
ments were every day becoming due, 
and the Government importunate and 
exacting. Many of the occupants had 
purchased with the hope of being able 
to make enough off their farms to meet 
these deferred payments; but there was 
little or no demand for their produce, 
and no way of getting it to market. It 
must be admitted the county was sickly 
and the agues and fevers of thoBe days 
were no light matters. Under these cir- 
cumstances no wonder that many be- 
came discouraged and surrendered their 
possessions after years of unrequited 
toil and labor. 

The same state of affairs existed in 
other parts of the State, as respects the 
Congress lands, and so great was the 
indebtedness of the purchasers that the 
collection seemed likely to bankrupt the 
State, and Congress remitted this in- 
debtedness, I believe, to the amount of 
fifteen or twenty millions. 

From 1816 to 1826, was a period of 
great depression, from which time the 
business of the country began to revive, 
and soon after the completion of the 
canals Franklin county entered upon a 
career of prosperity that has never been 
checked. 

From my brief and chronological pre- 
sentation, it will be perceived that the 
first county of the Northwest Territory, 



established within the present limits of 
the State, was Washington county, 
which included all of our county east of 
the Scioto. The second county was 
Hamilton, lyiug betwixt the two Mi- 
amis, with the Little Miami for its east- 
ern boundary. The third county was 
Wayne, which included a large part of 
Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, all of 
Michigan and a part of Minnesota, with 
its county seat at Detroit. Now the 
southern line of Wayne county was a 
line drawn west from Fort Laurens and 
continued until it intersected the east 
line of Hamilton county, which is here 
declared to be "a due north line from 
the lower Shawnee towns upon the Sci- 
oto river." It is evident, therefore, from 
this, that, betwixt the time of establish- 
ing Hamilton county, in 1790, and that 
of Wayne, in 1796, the eastern boundary 
of Hamilton had been greatly extended. 
This is also confirmed, if we refer to the 
alteration in the western boundary of 
Adams county in 1798. 

Now, whether we assume the lower 
Shawnee towns on the Scioto at the 
mouth of the river, to be intended, or 
those in the vicinity of Westfill, in 
Pickaway county, the due north 
line forming the eastern boundary of 
Hamilton would include the greater 
part of the present Franklin county, and 
must have passed just east of the spot 
where we are now assembled. So that 
it will be seen that our territory 
has been attached to seven dis- 
tinct political divisions in succession, 
as follows: Bottetourt, Illinois, Wash- 
ington, Hamilton, Adams, Ross and 
Franklin — with eight different county 
seats — Fincastle, Virginia, Kaskaskia 
Illinois Marietta.Cincinnati, Manchester, 
on the Ohio, Chillicothe, Franklinton, 
and Columbus. 

Being a native of the county I have 
witnessed much of its changes and pro- 
gress, and would be glad to enter into 
details of many interesting events, and 
make references, by name, to the early 
settlers of the county; bHt this must 
now be postponed to another occasion, 
for the limited time allotted to me pre- 
cludes any other than the most general 
treatment of my subject. 

But some of the incidents and names 
of the earliest settlers I hope to set forth 
in a biographical sketch which I am 
preparing, of a leading pioneer of this 
county, my father, Lucas Sullivant, who 
was surveying on the west side of the 
river in an early day, and who laid out 
the town of Franklinton and formed the 
first settlement in the county, in 1797. 

It will scarcely be credited by those 
of this generation, that, within the life- 
time of some who are here present ton 
day, there was a time when the seeming- 
ly interminable forest stretched away 
lrom the summits of the Alleghanles, 
league after league toward the setting 
sun — that St. Louis was an assemblage 
of three or four hundred traders in furs 
and peltries. The site of Chicago was a 
wet prairie, and Louisville was only a 
small village at the falls of the Ohio, 
and the place of our beautiful Queen 
City of the Ohio was a hamlet of log 



huts, under the shadow and protec- 
tion of the stockades and blockhouses of 
Fort Washington; and all beyond the 
Mississippi was a terra incognita. 

Throughout the vast region compris- 
ing the States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, 
Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota, 
the only white men were clustered 
around the sites of the old trading sta- 
tions and military posts, and the whole 
white population of the State probably 
did not more than equal that of one of 
the wards of our city. And here the 
wild beasts of the forest and the savage 
Indians roamed at will. The fertile val- 
ley of the Scioto was a favorite place of 
the Shawnees, where the natural prairies 
furnished grass and food for their po- 
nies in winter. 

The flat betwixt Columbus and Frank- 
llnton,and the field on the right as you go 
to Green Lawn, had been cultivated by 
the Indian women from time immemo- 
rial; for it is to be remembered that 
the noble savage man scorned manual 
labor and reserved his energies for the 
chase and the pastime of war. From 
these fertile spots, where bounteous 
nature yielded abundant products 
with little or no labor, they gathered the 
luscious green corn in its season, and 
celebrating the annual corn dance 
according to their own manner made 
offerings and did homage to the Great 
Spirit for this precious gift to His red 
children. 

It is but eighty-three years since 
the settlement of this State began, 
on the banks of the Ohio, at 
Marietta, and subsequently in many 
places the hardy pioneers won their 
farms from rugged nature and a savage 
foe; literally with the ax in one hand 
and the rifle in the other. But happily, 
many have lived through the privations 
and difficulties of frontier life, and wit- 
nessed the transformation of the wilder- 
ness into fruitful and smiling fields, and 
seen the wigwam of the savage give 
place to secure and happy homes, 
the abodes of civilization and refine- 
ment. 

In my childhood the howl of the wolf 
was a frequent lullaby, and the fear of 
Indian massacre disturbed my mother, 
as it did many another mother in the 
land. But the wild war-whoop of the 
bloody savage no longer breaks upon 
the startled ear and disturbs the slum- 
ber of the lonely settler. 

The efforts of King Philip and Pow- 
hattan on the Atlantic waters, and the 
grand and statesmanlike conceptions of 
Pontiac and of Tecumseh in the west, to 
interpose an armed and active Indian 
confederation to stay the advance of the 
white man, have all proved vain. So, 
also, the hopes of Zeisberger and his 
self-denying brethren, with the king and 
counselor of the Delawares, as to the 
founding of a great christian republic 
among the Indians, which was to gather 
into one united and consolidated nation 
all the scattered and wandering tribes of 
the west, and so preserve them as a dis- 
tinct and peculiar people, "have vanished 
like the baseless fabric of a dream." 

Of all the tribes that then inhabited 
the State none are left; not a single coun- 
cil fire remains in all this region; one by 



one they waned before the presence of 
the white man, and the nations that once 
surrounded them have utterly perished, 
or the feeble remnants retired before the 
ever advancing and remorseless tread of 
our own race. 

Fifty years ago, when the primeval 
forest still covered the greater part of 
the State of Ohio, it required no little 
courage and energy to undertake the 
making of a farm in Franklin county. 

The present residents of our towns and 
city, seeing only the beautiful country 
and highly cultivated fields of their im- 
mediate vicinity, and enjoying the va- 
rious and abundant products of these 
same fields, have little idea of the prim- 
itive life and the circumstances which 
surrounded the early settlers, or that it 
has taken the self denial, the industry 
and incessant toil of over two genera- 
tions to bring the face of the country 
into its present inviting and pleasing 
condition. 

In the early times of which I speak it 
was the prime object of the pioneers, 
with many a sturdy stroke, to slash 
down the grand old forests, and let the 
genial and vivifying rays of the sun 
upon a rich and virgin soil, where, in 
spite of roots and stumps and ever re- 
curring sprouts and bushes, they con- 
trived to reap sufficient crops to keep 
them well supplied with those great 
staples and comforts of pioneer life — hog 
and hominy. Even now we occasion- 
ally hear our farmers grumbling about 
dull times and the low price of 
produce, but are there not many here 
present who can remember when we had 
but few and imperfect roads, with but 
little home market and scarcely any 
outside the State for our products — that 
beeswax, ginseng and feathers were 
about all the articles that would pay for 
transportation to a distant market — 
that our hogs and beef cattle were driv- 
en afoot across the mountains, and after 
a month or six weeks exposure to wind 
and weather, iound a limited market in 
Baltimore ? Or the enterprising of a 
whole neighborhood would join togeth- 
er and build a flatboat or ark, and after 
loading it with a miscellaneous cargo of 
their surplus produce, would float It off 
to a perilous and uncertain market, 
which would occupy months in its ac- 
complishment ? Will they ever forget 
the times when cord wood, delivered in 
Columbus, was dull at 50 and 75 cents; 
hay $3 to $4 a ton; flour $1 50 to $2 
per hundred; pork $1 25 to |l 75; when 
wheat was sold at 25 and 30 cents a 
bushel, and corn was a drug at 8 and 10 
ceuts; oats, potatoes, butter and eggs 
scarcely had a market value at all; and 
as for the sale of a bushel of turnips, or 
a head of cabbage, it was an unheard of 
transaction. 

In looking back over these early times 
I cannot but believe we were as happy 
and contented as now, with all our pro- 
gress; most certainly as honest as at 
present, for we never heard of defalca . 
tions In office, or rings to cheat the 
Government out of revenue. Money was 
scarce and hard to get, and the taxes 
were often behindhand, but were honest- 
ly paid. 
We seemed to be mutually dependent 



10 



and relied more on one another, and 
there was more neighborly helpfulness 
in rendering assistance, especially to the 
new beginners, or those weak handed; as 
witness the house raisings, social chop- 
ping parties and log-rollings, huskings 
and quiltings. There was certainly much 
genuine hospitality, for although the 
cabins had puncheon floors aud clap- 
board roofs, the latch string was always 
out, and no man ever refused or was 
afraid or ashamed to share his humble 
fare with a neighbor or a stranger. 

The women were more accustomed to 
spin flax and wool than to reel off street 
yarn; were more familiar with the ryth- 
mical thud of the loom, and the hum of 
the big spinning wheel tban with the 
piano, and did not disdain to be well 
versed in all household affairs, and yet 
were by no means deficient in beauty, 
intelligence or refinement. The extrav- 
agance, fast living, expensive habits and 
mad strife to get rich at all hazards and 
by any means, that, now seems to have 
taken possession of all classes, was not 
then manifest. The men of those days 
never dreamed of getting rich by fat 
offices, or by the sale of their political 
influence, or off the public by fraudulent 
and put up jobs. Politics was not yet a 
trade, by which shysters and loafers 
could live. Our early settlers expected 
to thrive only by patient industry, and 
not only believed in frugality and hard 
work, but illustrated and supplemented 
their theory by actual and daily practice. 

It is in my recollection when the city 
of Columbus had no existence, and its 
present site was covered with forest, 
where the deer and the wolf found shel- 
ter and safety amid its solitude. 

What marvelous changes I have 
witnessed since I was a school boy, with 
William and Nat. Merion, Elijah Backus, 
Chris. Ransburgh and others in the old 
frame building which stood on the cor- 
ner of Town and High streets, where 
now stands the commodious United 
States Hotel ! 

In these days of progress aud improve- 
ment, of commodious and convenient 
school buildings, with elegant seats and 
desks, I do not know which would pro- 
duce the greatest astonishment — to in- 
troduce one of our high school boys to 
the primitive log school house, with 
the rough slab benches, where their 
grandfathers received the rudiments of 
an education, or to show one of the girls 
the spinning wheel and loom with 
which their grandmothers manufactured 
their own becoming garments. 

Mr. President, do we not recollect 
when our beautiful capitol square was 
full of stumps and used as a pasture by 
the State officers, aud when we boys 
went in to play ball, that we had to con- 
tend for possession with McLean's old 
horse and Osboru's cow? 

Why, sir, it seems almost but yester- 
day, since your brother William and 



myself, with Robert and John Arm- 
strong, Jim Adams, Lucius and Jack 
Ball, Gus. Brown, John and Keys Barr, 
Henry Butler, James and Robert Cul- 
bertson, Moses Hoge, James Kooken, 
John Kerr, James Livingston, Tom 
Loftland, Henry Mills, Milt. McLain, 
John Overdier, John and James Osrr 
borne, Hiram Powers, Grove Parrish, 
Ben Pike, William Piatt, Alf. Russell, 
William Scott, John and Bob Wherry, 
and others not now recollected, were 
careering around like young colts, in 
and out among the papaw bushes, near 
by the academy, which stood on Third 
street, near the present Second Presby- 
terian Church. 

What times we had in summer with 
prisoners base, four holed cat, hop 
scotch, round the stakes, and roley boley 
— and in winter how we gathered the 
corn oil' the outlots east of Fourth 
street, betwixt Town and Rich, and 
parched it on the old stove from Mary 
Ann furnace. 

With the hot blood coursing through 
our veins we feared neither wind or 
weather, and cared neither for Kiiiic 
nor Kaiser, had no thought of the mor- 
row, except from its anticipated pleas- 
ures, and experienced no sorrows that a 
night's sound sleep did not dissipate. 

Our early days— how often back 
We turn on life's bewildering track, 
To where o'er hill and vailey, plays 
The sunlight of our early days. 

If all those who gathered with us in 
the old Columbus Academy could have 
come together years afterward, in the 
full flush of manhood, what a tale might 
have been told of fair promise unfulfilled, 
of high hopes and youthful ambition 
that came to naught, of griefs and bitter 
disappointments, of hearts sore wouud- 
ed and scarred in the rough conflict of 
life. 

Still, notwithstanding all this, the 
pathway of those has not always been 
through storm and shadow, for I am 
happy to say that, to some at least, there 
appears to have come a fair share of 
such happiness and prosperity as seems 
to be vouchsafed to us poor mortals. 

That youthful band that were accus- 
tomed to gather in to the instruction of 
kind, patient, good Mr. Brown, our 
teacher, were scattered far and wide, 
and many now "Sleep the sleep that 
knows no breaking." 

As my thoughts so frequently, now, 
travel back, and dwell with pleasant 
recollections upon the companions and 
playmates of the olden time— 

"How oft, in the stilly night, 

Ere slumber's chains had bound me, 
Fond memory brings the 1 ight 
Of other days around me." 

And now, Mr. President, the days of 
our youth have glided away, and you 
and I, with eo many assembled here to- 
day, are numbered with those who were 
Pioneers fifty years ago. 



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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




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